Lynn Miles – Winter

LYNN MILES

Winter

lynnmilesmusic.com

Although I’ve lived all of my life in Canada, where the winters are long and cold, sometimes very cold, I’m not one who has ever warmed to and embraced the season – except maybe when I can listen to a favorite singer sing about it.

Just before Christmas, Lynn Miles, a favorite singer-songwriter, released Winter, an excellent collection of songs set in this coldest and darkest time of the year. Some of them are performed live with a string quartet, some are studio recordings.

While most of the songs are recorded for the first time, a few are reimagined for this set because they fit the theme, including the album opener, “Last Night,” an early song of Lynn’s that beautifully captures the magic of the first snowfall of the season (the only snowfall of the year I would possibly describe in those terms). The song’s lyrics and haunting melody are served so very well by Lynn’s singing on top of a lovely string arrangement.

Other favorites include “The Coldest Winter in the History of the World,” which doesn’t describe this current El Niño winter, but is surely reminiscent of last year when the bitter cold set in early and didn’t let up; “High Heels in the Snow,” a compelling and very sad portrait of a teenaged prostitute who doesn’t make it to Christmas; and “Casino El Camino,” a song about being lonely and far away from home in Texas at Christmas time.

In addition to Lynn’s own songs there is a beautiful version of my late friend Jesse Winchester’s “Wintery Feeling,” a song that so brilliantly captures the scene of a nighttime snowfall in Montreal, the city where I lived for most of my life. I love Lynn’s plaintive harmonica playing on this track.

The five songs at the end of the album, including the already-mentioned “Casino El Camino,” are labelled Christmas. But they're not so much Christmas songs as songs that are set around Christmastime, so I don't get that enough-with-Christmas-already feeling hearing them in January (or, I'm sure, later).

While there is a definite sadness to many of these songs (few singers do sad as well as Lynn) the album ends with “Twenty Pound Turkey,” a really fun rock ‘n’ roll song in which Lynn channels her inner Chuck Berry (with lots of help from Keith Glass on electric guitar).

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--Mike Regenstreif

Lynne Hanson – River of Sand

LYNNE HANSON
River of Sand
Well Done Music 
lynnehanson.com

Lynne Hanson’s first three recordings – released between 2006 and 2010 – were all good albums that showcased a singer-songwriter of great promise. After a four-year wait since her previous release, Lynne delivers on that promise with River of Sand – 11 songs delve deep into personal darkness, whether she’s seemingly writing about herself or obviously about a character she’s created.

Several songs delve into broken, ended relationships but she writes and sings with depth about contradictory feelings – “I say that I don’t care/ I’m stone but I’m lying,” she sings in “Whiskey and Tears,” and “Our home became four walls of love grown cold/ My heart still broke the day that it was sold,” she sings in “This Old House.”

Other songs explore the effects of depression. In “This Too Shall Pass,” the narrator contemplates the absolute loneliness of depression and, perhaps, a final ending. In “Heaven and Hell,” she feels like she’s being strangled by the devil.

The crutch of drinking and losing one’s self in the effects of alcohol are vividly explored in several songs including the title song as well as the aforementioned “Whiskey and Tears” and “Colour My Summers Blue.”

Lynne also steps outside of herself in “Good Intentions,” in which a character named Suzy finds herself compromised at the hands of a would-be rapist and fights back with lethal force.

The album ends on a brighter note. While still singing about a broken relationship in “Trading in My Lonesome,” co-written with producer Lynn Miles, Lynn sings about the personal redemption borne of real closure.

It is obvious, listening to these songs that Lynne is writing about these emotions with authenticity. The songs, and her clear country alto, are well served by finely crafted arrangements featuring such musicians as guitarist Keith Glass, fiddler Lyndell Montgomery, Anders Dreup on pedal steel and guitar, and Lynn Miles and Rebecca Campbell on harmony vocals.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Missy Burgess – Play Me Sweet

MISSY BURGESS

Play Me Sweet

Missy Burgess

missyburgess.com

I heard Ottawa-based singer and songwriter Missy Burgess for the first time about four years ago when she slipped me a copy of Lemon Pie, her second album. I liked it a lot gave it a nice – albeit brief – review in the Montreal Gazette.

As someone who turned to performing, and, particularly to recording as a fairly mature artist, you can hear the weight of experience Missy brings to her strong original material and to the interpretive voice she brings to standards and the gems from other writers she chooses to cover. Although her voice sounds like neither, she reminds me of Penny Lang and Rosalie Sorrels in that regard.

As good as Lemon Pie was, Play Me Sweet is a big step forward for Missy and I suspect producer-guitarist Keith Glass – of Prairie Oyster – has a lot to do with it. His superb musicianship is all over the CD, he co-wrote four of the songs with Missy, and contributed another two songs of his own. In addition to the co-writes with Keith – one of which Chris White also had a hand in – Missy also wrote two of the tracks herself and there are three more excellent covers.

At the top of my list of favourite tracks is Missy’s “Don’t Go to Cincinnati,” sung from the perspective of a woman whose man divides his time with her and with another woman in Cincinnati. The minor key arrangement is reminiscent of Brechtian cabaret songs filtered through Tom Waits. Speaking of Waits, Missy’s world-weary version of his “Time,” is one of the best interpretations of that great song I’ve heard.

Other favourites include Keith’s “Sundown Blues,” a classic country break-up song; Missy and Keith’s “Play Me Sweet,” whose portrait of a sad man on a train builds slowly and poetically over three verses; and a sweet version of “Smile,” the inspiring buck-up standard composed by silent film star Charlie Chaplin.

Although I’ve just mentioned a few of the songs, the quality of the material, Missy’s singing, and Keith’s spot-on arrangements, turn each of the 11 songs on Play Me Sweet to gold.

--Mike Regenstreif

Healing Garden Music Fest

My friend Terry Eagen from Waltham, Massachusetts, lost his wife, Mary, to leukemia in 1992. Since, then Terry has honoured Mary’s memory by spearheading the creation of healing gardens at several cancer care facilities in Canada and the U.S.

Terry fundraises for the gardens by holding annual Healing Garden Music Fests in several American and Canadian cities. Ottawa’s seventh annual Healing Garden Music Fest is this coming Sunday, November 27, 2:00-5:00 pm, at the Bronson Centre. Proceeds from this concert will support the completion of the Mary Eagen Garden at the Irving Greenberg Family Cancer Centre at the Queensway Carleton Hospital.

Artists appearing on Sunday include Lynn Miles, Missy Burgess, Amanda Rheaume and Ana Miura. Special guest stars are Michael Burgess – Missy’s brother – best known for his starring role in Les Miserables and Keith Glass of Prairie Oyster.

Tickets are $25 at the door. I’m sure it will be a wonderful afternoon. For more info, visit patiorecords.com.

--Mike Regenstreif